Singapore's Straits Times ran a story in November 2003- they sent out a team of journalists on a race from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur:

The feature evaluated time, cost, convenience and quality- but they missed out on one of the best modes of travel, in my view;

Whether for business or travel with the family, licensed taxi or limo works very well for me for travel between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore or vice versa.

While in either Singapore if I ring Azman he arranges for a car or Singapore taxi to pick me up at my Orchard Road hotel. If I am in a hurry, the vehicle takes me to the TuasCheckpoint (Second Link in Malaysia) where Azman meets me with his warm smile and his licensed Malaysian taxi.

Within three hours of taking off from Tuas, we are at the KL toll gate.

Total cost: Singapore $50 for Orchard Road hotel pickup and Malaysia Ringgit 250 for Kuala Lumpur hotel drop off.

From a cost and time perspective it is quite competitive versus taking economy class air travel between the two cities. The same system works for the return journey.

(a less expensive alternative is to take a shared taxi from Queen St. taxi stand ($7 per pax), to the JB taxi stand where Azman can meet you.)

For Business class travel

He drives his own mercedes, Subra and charges me Malaysian Ringgit 1,200 to get me either to or from Singapore. Subra manages to save 20 minutes off the travel. If incented he could even manage 45 minutes!

Friends in Procter & Gamble, Unilever, ExxonMobil,Citibank, Standard Chartered, IBM, sun, British Petroleum, Ingenico, Verifone, Oracle etc prefers this means of travel for its flexibility and convenience. The journey with either Azman or Subra is quite seamless unlike the start-wait-go-wait-go of air travel for short distances.